A Five-0 Promise
by WofOZ
Summary: All we are is flesh and blood and no matter how invicible we seem even the greatest of heros may fall. Danny's tired of Steve playing "fast and loose" and of losing partners. Steve makes a promise to not die any time soon. "Death fic" warning!


**So... this was something new for me to write. I ventured out of my comfort zone just a bit and I hope you all like it.**

**Warning for the ending... Tissues required.**

**Enjoy!**

**Oz**

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Danny didn't realize it until the anniversary of Meka's death but Steve Mcgarrett was the third partner he'd had since making detective back in Jersey. There was Grace. There was Meka and then there was Steve.

At first Danny just shrugged it off. It didn't mean anything. But then a week after Meka's memorial service... Steve had nearly gotten hit by a car chasing a suspect. When it was all said and done the suspect had a broken arm and Steve, in spite of enough road rash to build a new road with, just smiled at the paramedic who cleaned his wounds.

"Got the guy didn't I?" Steve had announced proudly. And Danny's gut had churned for the first time. He'd chewed his partner out for being reckless before storming back to the Camaro.

Not four days later found Five-0 in yet another dangerous situation. Drug dealers had tried to smuggle in enough cocaine to get all of Oahu high by the light of a full moon.

Five-0 had been there and stopped the boat only to have their boss, Steve, get tangled in fishing net as he tussled with a suspect before falling overboard.

It was four gruelling minutes of searching the dark waters yelling Steve's name before anyone caught sight of him. When the man did reappear he had the suspect clutched against his chest and a bowie-knife clenched firmly in his teeth.

"I'm a Navy SEAL, Danno. Holding my breath for four minutes or even more is part of my training," Steve had said once they were back on dry land. Then the smug bastard had smiled again and added; "You concerned for me Daniel?"

Danny hadn't replied. He'd grabbed his keys from the lumbering idiot and jumped into the Camaro, taking off before Steve could even realize he'd gone.

Back at HQ Danny was typing up his after action report when Steve, Chin and Kono reappeared. The cousins gave him a curious glance before heading to their respective offices while Steve just marched up to his desk and gave him a firm glare.

"Care to explain to me why you left your partner at the docks without so much as a goodbye?" He asked. Danny sat back looked at the man and frowned.

"Because you're an idiot and I'm cursed," he replied. For a moment, Steve said nothing. He just stood there and blinked.

Finally he dropped back into the chair opposite the jersey native and smiled in confusion.

"You're going to have to explain that one to me," he replied.

"Explain what? That you're going to get yourself killed and it's going to be all my fault?" Danny snarled. The smile fell away from Steve's face and now he just looked confused and worried. Seeing this Danny sighed and decided his partner needed more detail. "I've lost two partners already, Steve. Grace then Meka and they weren't nearly as backward and inside out crazy as you are." Finally recognition lit up Steve's face and the smile, annoyingly returned.

"Danny I'm not out to get myself killed and neither were they," he replied. "Things happen sometimes that we can't prevent but I promise you, I'm not dying anytime soon." Scoffing at the comment, Danny shook his head and flopped back into his chair.

"You can't say that," he replied. "No one can say that... particularly if you're _my_ partner."

"Okay, you're right, I can't say that but I can say, I'm not out to get myself killed Danny. I'm a trained professional and what you see as risky, I see as just another day. It's what makes us such a good team, I'm the dooer, you're the thinker." Danny smacked his forehead and dragged a hand down his face while Steve started chuckling.

"One day you're going to eat your words Steven," the detective snarled. "Mark my words, you will eat them."

"Possibly," Steve said heading toward Danny's office door. "However I will promise to be more careful if it means I don't have to fold myself into the backseat of Kono's car again." At that, Danny couldn't help but laugh.

"G*d help you if there is a next time, I'll make sure you have to walk back," he replied. In truth, he did know Steve was extremely well-trained to go into dangerous situations. It went with the description of being a Navy SEAL and sometimes, Danny had to remind himself of that. It still didn't make those death defying moments any easier but it helped if only just a little bit.

A month later the inevitable happened.

At first Danny had thought it was an earthquake. In fact, he'd been damn certain that, as the world crumbled around him and he was knocked harshly into oblivion, Danny Williams was sure it was a big one and he was most certainly going to die.

One second he and Steve had been poking around an abandoned house for evidence on the North Shore and the next, the world exploded, shaking and crumbling and generally stirring up pure fear in even the veteran detective.

A day ago a victim had been found by a hiker minutes away from the run down shack and HPD had found signs that victim, a woman, had been held captive in the shack and tortured.

Today, Steve had decided that even after all possible evidence had been collected, he wanted to go back and give it one more look. Just him and Danny, what harm could it possibly do? And damn it all if the Ninja hadn't found a trap door under a rug and some junk that lead into a cellar of the run down shack.

A cellar that was clearly where the woman had been kept. The last piece of the puzzle Five-0 had been looking for to condemn their potential suspect... A high-ranking Naval officer, of the crime.

As Danny's mind swam through a haze of concussion and confusion he vaguely recalled Steve looking around the clearly modernized hidden room before turning to his partner, grinning as only he could and saying, "We got him Danny, we got that-"

And that's all there was. At least that was when the mother of all earthquakes suddenly rocked Danny off his feet and the world decided to end.

"... Anny! D, danny, come on buddy I need to to... Aah... I need you to wake up... D, Danno... Please!"

Confused even more by his partner's urgent almost scared please, the Jersey detective forced the last vestiges of his forced slumber and dared open his eyes.

His first thought was how in the hell he wasn't dead. The second was to slowly take in his surroundings as he confirmed his body had all necessary parts still attached. Everything hurt but also everything was still attached and moving as it should. Well he was sure his leg was broken and his ribs hurt like a bastard but the worrying thing was how, even with the small flickering of a light that had miraculously survived the carnage, he couldn't see out of his left eye. Thankfully the other was working just fine and after another moment of thinking "what the every loving hell?" An urgent voice once again roused him.

"Danny for the love of god, _please_, PLEASE wake up!"

Steve's panicked cry could not go ignored. Mostly because Steve and "panicked cry" didn't belong in the same area code.

"S, Steve?" He grunted.

"Yes! G*d... Yes, yes... Danny... Danno... buddy ugh... I, I need your help man... I'm... I'm not doing so good here," Steve replied. Something in the Jersey man kicked into high gear. The adrenaline or the fear or the loyalty whatever it was he ignored any pain or worry he had about his own body and rolled over determined to get to his partner.

That's when he saw Steve and for a heartbeat he froze, convinced he was witnessing his best friends dying moments. Steve looked him in the eye his face emotionless but his eyes wide with fear.

And he had every reason to be. Steve was clearly pinned or impaled by debris but the worst was the fact that with his one free hand he was desperately clutching at his exposed left leg. Just out of reach from his long arms was a gaping wound.

A gaping wound that was spurting blood that definitely was not supposed to be doing so. Danny reacted so quickly he'd later be amazed he'd had the capacity to do so.

Mercifully he'd found enough space to get to his partner's side and without thinking about it, tore his partner's pant leg further before reaching into the wound and pinching off the damaged artery.

And Steve roared. Did he ever. He howled out an ungodly cry of pain and fear that couldn't be faked in even the best of movies.

"I got it, I got it," Danny repeated as much to convince himself as he did his partner. "Steve?" He asked. His partner was pale, bloody and god knew what other horrors lay beneath his pinned side but he was alive for the moment and still breathing. "Steve," Danny tried again more firmly.

After several more deep breaths the Navy SEAL finally opened his pain filled eyes and locked on Danny's.

"Hey," Danny said doing his best to smile. "You need anything else?" He joked as he tried to ignore the fact that his clawed grip was all that stood between Steve and death.

Amazingly, Steve snorted back a nervous laugh and allowed himself to collapse back to the debris behind him.

"Honestly wasn't sure you'd know what to do," Steve smiled. Danny didn't take the comment personally, in fact he took it as a personally victory that he was capable of keeping his partner alive. Of all the times Steve had pulled him from the proverbial fire now it was his chance to return the favour.

And he wasn't letting go anytime soon because he knew, if the roles were reversed, Steve would be thinking exactly the same.

"Believe it or not I took an advanced first aid course," Danny replied as he tried to think of how in the hell they were going to get out of their buried prison alive. "Passed with 99% and have recertified four times. Once here on Hawaii which had the added portion of shark bites and jellyfish stings." Steve grunted out a laugh.

"I survive this and I'll sign off on any and all first aid requirements you think necessary for the team," he breathed. "I survive this and I'll make sure Grace has a SEAL protection detail everywhere she goes... And I'll buy her a pony." Now it was Danny's turn to chuckle and shake his head.

"Now you're just making me look like a bad father," he smiled. But his smile faded as his one good eye took in just how pale and blue lipped his partner was. "Hey," he said firmly. "Stick with me okay? I think it was an earthquake but Chin and Kono know we're here and when we don't check in they'll send help. Probably only minutes away babe." Steve did his best to smile but it faded fast and he shook his head.

"W'snt an earthquake," he said with more of a slur than Danny would have liked. "S'bomb... Collapsed the structure and dropped us into a lava tube." Danny fought the haze in his mind and remembered the information they'd gathered on the shack.

Apparently it had been built over a maze of lava tubes. The original owners had abandoned it and the land was condemned. Their suspect had bought it under the guise of a private security training ground.

"That son of a bitch," Danny snarled. "He knew we'd find this place and didn't want to leave any evidence to nail him to the wall." Steve nodded before daring to glance down at the wound that now had his partner's fingers attached to it.

"Hey," Danny said drawing the man's gaze. "You don't need to look at that," he added. "All too need to do is lie there and be good." Steve's face eased a little as he forced a smile and focused back to the rubble above him.

"Just... Just don't start talking with your hands Danno," he grunted "It could get m, messy."

"I only love you for tour dark sense of humour," Danny retorted. They both sat in silence for a few minutes undoubtedly thinking of just how serious their situation was.

Then Steve spoke very quietly,

"What's wrong with your head?" Without even realizing it, Danny had uses his free hand to try to rub what ever it was that had gotten into his left eye and was stopping him from seeing properly.

Snapping his hand away from his face Danny looked at Steve and put on an innocent face.

"M'fine," he answered. "Just a little conk on the head but I'm fine." When Steve looked anything but convinced Danny used his free hand to grab Steve's free one. "I am completely okay right now okay? Now I left my cell in the car, did you bring yours?"

"Mmm..." Steve moaned. Danny's heart skipped a beat but he forced his mind to believe this wound couldn't possibly be as bad as Danny, or Steve, for that matter thought it was. They were survivors, they came about it two very different ways but they were survivors none the less who would refuse to die.

Still, the amount of blood, the almost blue tinged lips and extremities, Danny was man enough to admit he was scared. No... No not scared, terrified.

"Steve! Cell phone!" Danny barked. True to his training, the Navy SEAL responded to a direct command. He snorted jerked his eyes open and then used his free hand to try to reach toward the leg that Danny was desperately holding together.

"S'in my pocket," he replied. Danny gave the man an un-amused look.

"_Seriously_?! You've got a billion and one pockets on these pants. You have so many pockets your pockets have pockets and so help me if you fall asleep before you tell me which one that phone is in," Danny ranted as he searched with his free hand. "I'll strip you down to your skivvies and take blackmail pictures to give Kono as a Christmas card."

"Skivvies?" Steve chuckled. "Did you just use a military catch phrase?" Danny quelled his rising fear in favour of keeping a calm front for his partner's benefit. He playfully narrowed his eyes and scowled.

"I've hung out with a very unsavoury character who likes to think my car is actually his," he replied. "The knuckle-dragger talk is bound to sink into my brain when I'm exposed to it so damn much." Steve barked out a laugh but almost as quickly huffed out an exclamation of pain as the laughing clearly jarred his injured body.

"Low left," he said through grit teeth. Danny didn't waste a second as he found the correct pocket and pulled out not just a cell phone bit a satellite phone. Thankful for yet another small miracle, Danny flipped the phone open and turned it on.

"You given up on a regular cell babe?" Danny joked. It was something the two men did besides surviving in their own way. They talked. They talked about everything and anything and Danny knew Steve found comfort in his ranting just as much as Danny relied on Steve's random yet intrusive comments on how he handled his own business.

In short, the two men were meant for each other. Brothers in arms. Questionably sane, borderline psychotic and undoubtedly irreparably emotionally damaged brothers in arms but brothers none the less.

"I've got my cell," Steve croaked. "It's crushed under my a** if you want to dig it out. Figured you'd like to go right for the option that most likely... Aah... Has better... Ungh... R, reception." Danny saw the SEALs struggle for consciousness happening as the man continued to speak. He wasted no time dialling Chin Ho's number back at Five-0 grateful that reception was actually able to penetrate into their prison. It gave Danny hope that they weren't to far from the surface.

"Chin-Ho Kelly," Came the chipper answer. The connection was there but it was faint and there was a lot of static on the line.

"Chin, the shack was rigged," Danny blurted out.

"Are you two hurt?... You know what, never mind... Kono's got Army Evac on the phone and headed your way," Chin replied. Either the man was psychic or he'd caught on to something in Danny's voice that answered the question without words. "How bad?" the Hawaiian asked. Danny opened his mouth to respond but then closed it again and looked from Steve's eyes, to the wound on his leg and then to the side still wondering why he couldn't see in one eye.

"We need serious help here buddy," was all Danny could think to reply. Steve's shadowed eyes snapped open a little wider before again travelling down to the wound on his leg.

"Help's coming Danny," Chin said with great certainty. "Kono and I will be there too as soon as we can. Can you give me a run down of the injuries?"

"We're trapped, Steve's got an... aah damn it!" In the process of trying to adjust the phone, Danny's hand slipped and a spray of blood pulsed from Steve's wound. Quickly dropping the phone as his partner wailed in mail content the detective found the artery again and clamped down twice as hard. Hand cramp be damned he wasn't about to let that happen again.

"Y, you... you got it?" Steve croaked, his lead lolling back against the rubble.

"Got it, I got it, you're okay, we're okay," Danny chanted as if it was the last thing he would do. It took a moment for his contused brain to realize someone was shouting at him. Took him longer than he would have liked to realize that voice was a very worried Chin over the Sat phone. Carefully, so as not to have another incident, Danny picked up the phone.

"Danny! Steve! What's going on!?" Chin demanded.

"Steve's got a bad bleed, it's a severed artery," Danny explained. There was a pause before Chin breathily replied;

_"Jesus..."_

"Yeah," Danny said although he smiled at Steve who looked ready to pass out. Amazingly, the man smiled back as best he could. They weren't dead yet. "I've got it pinched in my fingers but we need to get out of here sooner rather than later."

"I'll tell Army evac to step on it," Chin breathed. "What about you?"

"I'm fine, Steve needs help more than I do," Danny replied without hesitating. This brought a frown to Steve's pale face and though he couldn't see it, he was sure it brought a frown to Chin's as well.

"D, don't be a hero Danny," Steve growled. "Evac n, needs to know wh, what equipment to bring." Chin seemed to have the same idea as he spoke seconds later.

"Evac will need an accurate report on-"

"My left leg's undoubtedly broken, think I got a couple of cracked ribs, a concussion and I uh... I can't... really see." Steve's eyes snapped open wide, a surge of adrenaline and concern that Danny had been trying to avoid putting the man through clearly kicked in. Chin must have been shocked too as it took him a moment to reply.

"You can't _see_?"

"My left eye," Danny replied. "There's something in it or... I don't know... Look Chin, Steve's looking a little green here and we need to conserve the phone's battery."

"Agreed," Chin said. "We'll call when we get there." After a quick thanks and goodbye, Danny found a safe place to put the phone down before turning back to his partner. Steve's gaze was sharp and amazingly focused all things considered. His face was squirreled up not in pain but rather frustration and guilt.

"So you're totally fine right?" Steve growled out sarcastically. Danny winced and once again tried to rub his sore head, blinking a few times as if that would clear his vision right up.

"Considering how you are? Yeah, I am," he replied. "S'probably nothing."

"Or you could be bleeding into your skull Danny! You should have told me that your leg was broken and oh... that you can't friggin' see!" Apparently the adrenaline had kicked in hard and the Navy SEAL seemed more coherent now than he had moments ago. Danny rolled his eyes and would have waved a hand through the air if the risk of doing so wasn't life and death.

"What exactly would you have done?" he replied. "You're a ninja, not a doctor."

"I'm your friend," Steve growled.

"Yeah you are," Danny came right back. "And right now, _friend_, you bleeding to death while I can do nothing but sit here and watch definitely trumps some dust in my eye! So save your strength and let me concentrate on trying to save your life!" For several long moments, neither man said anything to each other. All that could be heard was their laboured breathing and the eerie groans and creeks of the mess above and around them.

Then finally after what seemed like forever, Danny's wandering gaze travelled back to his partner where he was horrified to find Steve's head lifelessly dropped back.

"STEVE!" Danny exclaimed. He used his free hand to check that there was in fact a week pulse before taping the man on the cheek. "Hey come on sleeping ugly, you're not getting off that easy. Steve WAKE. UP!" he ordered. Steve groaned, his eyes fluttered open but only just.

"D'ny?"

"Yeah buddy, come on, talk to me," he asked.

"Bout what?" Steve sighed as if ready for a long nap.

"Anything. I don't know... teach me how to kill a man with a shoelace," Danny replied. "Or explain to me why in the hell they call them "dress blues" when they're really black." Thankfully that drew a tired smile as Steve absent-mindedly rubbed his free hand on the large piece of debris that was pinning him to the ground.

"Shoelace trick... i, is classified," he chuckled. "And e, even I don't know... 'bout the dress blues." Danny grinned but it was short-lived as the smile disappeared of his partner's face and shockingly, a tear slid down the man's cheek.

"Hey... come on, you getting soft on me McGarrett?" the detective tried.

"M'sorry," Steve croaked wiping his face. "N'should'a checked the room properly. Should'a known s'trap."

"Yes, this is all your fault," Danny sighed messaging his temple. "You turned that Navy guy into a raging nut job and you, yourself rigged this house to blow the exact moment we found the trap door. I'm guessing thousands of years ago you also made sure this lava tube went directly under this crappy shack didn't you? Don't lie, I know that was you, goddess of the Volcano's be damned. Confess!" Again, Danny considered it a win when his partner chuckled and shook his head.

"N're a good man Danno," Steve replied. "M'still sorry we're n'this mess."

"Yeah," Danny sighed as his head throbbed just a little more. "Yeah, me too."

It took two hours for Chin and Kono to show up and another hour for Army Evac to show up on scene and start working. By that point, Danny's head felt like it was trying to split itself in half and his hand was cramping badly. Above them they could know just hear heavy machinery and the rumbles that alerted them someone was attempting to free them.

"Evac says they've stabilized the loose debris," Kono relayed through the Sat phone. "They don't think you're too far down so there hopeful we can get you out soon." Danny took a breath and looked at Steve who'd amazingly managed to stay conscious for the entire wait. Even so, his skin was almost translucent and his lips were more blue than Danny had seen on some corpses.

"Jus'hurry," Danny sighed. "N'call you back." Dropping the phone, not really caring where it landed at this point, Danny closed his eyes and tried to push his last reserves of strength into keeping his fingers pinched together. The warm flow of life-sustaining liquid was every present despite both he and Steve's best attempts to act as if nothing were wrong.

"Y'slurrin' y'words," Steve mumbled through hazed eyes. Danny looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Says you," he huffed.

"Y'kay?" the Navy SEAL tried for the hundredth time in the last few hours.

"Ask me that when we get out of here... aah, damn it!" A sudden hot burning shot through Danny's skull. It was so hot and so strong that for a second, just for a moment, he wasn't sure that he'd blacked out.

"Danny? DANNY!" Steve exclaimed. Pulling himself back from the abyss knowing passing out was absolutely not an option, the detective grunted, forced himself to focus and was amazed he still had not let go of Steve. His partner's half dead but horrified gaze was locked on him. "S'wrong Danno?" he asked.

"Head," Danny groaned. "Headache's gettin' pretty bad." He was to tired, to scared and to contused to lie. As quickly as he said it however, he took a few deep breaths and forced a smile. "Don't worry though, I got this," he added.

"S'not what M'worried about," Steve slurred. Danny looked up, in their dim light he could see a look of resignation and acceptance on his partner's face. Adrenaline shot through the detective as he ignored his own troubles and focused on that look.

"Don't you dare," he spat. Steve smiled a sad smile and shook his head.

"Have too," he replied. "If y'need to... s'okay to let go." Danny closed his eyes and fought the emotions that threatened to make him lose control. When he opened them again, he glared at his partner.

"I'm not letting go," he said, his own slur all but gone due to his rage. "And for someone who doesn't want me to hand talk you're doing a damn good job of pissing me- Aaaah!" Another sharp blinding pain shot through Danny's skull and his fingers nearly, almost slipped from their grip.

"Danno..." Steve's slurring was pretty bad now and his voice was breaking like no one as strong as he should ever sound. "S'okay... Th'nk 'bout Gracie..."

"Shut up!" Danny yelled even though it caused him incredible pain to do so. "Just... shut up," he said much quieter. "We're both getting out of here and everything's going to be fine. Understand? You promised me you weren't going to die anytime soon. So what's with the giving up attitude huh?" Steve managed a small smile before using his free hand to give a thumbs up.

"Kay Danno, wont give up," he replied. Danny could feel his own strength waning, he was tired beyond belief and all he wanted to do was sleep but he refused to give up. He refused to let Steve give up.

A moment later, Danny could hear the sounds of people getting closer to them as small bits of cement started raining down on them. Despite himself, Danny smiled and looked up.

"Hear that? Here comes the cavalry, eh Steve?... Steve?" Snapping his head back down Danny found his partner's head lulled to one side and his eyes closed. "Steve!" Danny yelled using his good hand to lightly tap his friends face. "Steve come on! You can't do this! You promised!" Just as natural light started to filter in from above the same white-hot pain drove itself into Danny's head. "Steve! STEVE!" he hollered as he felt himself falling forward. But damn it all if he didn't clamp down twice as hard even as the pain threatened to knock him out. "S...eeeve..." he mewled out. The last thing he felt were hands on his back and the last thing he heard was new voices heralding their rescue.

Three month's later a lone figure walked into the offices of Five-0 and looked at the offices around him. It had taken him a long time to get over what happened, to accept that he'd never again hear that voice, see that smirk or argue over who gets to drive the Camaro. Sure he'd lost people in the past but losing a partner... it just _hurt_. It hurt more than you could ever imagine.

"Hey." Turning around the figure came face to face with Chin and Kono, they both had looks of concern but some hope that he was finally standing there before them. He'd seen them before, at the hospital and again when he was recovering at home and unfortunately the funeral but something was different now. Now, they were in a place that only the four of them called "home".

"Hey," he replied. Suddenly, seeing them and being in this place again, tears burst to his eyes. "I should have made Danny promise me back!" he choked out. "He shouldn't have held on so long!"

"It's okay Steve," Chin said as he and Kono wrapped their arms around him. "Nothing you could have done would have saved him. We'll get through this and will remind Grace every day how good a man he was." Steve knew he'd spend all the time he had left on the earth doing exactly that but still it seemed cruel irony that the Jersey detective was the one to die and not him. Steve would never be able to forget Grace's screams of inconsolable sadness when she'd been told the truth from "Uncle Steve's" own lips.

Irreparable hemorrhaging to the brain, the doctors had said. They'd tried but most likely the moment Danny lost sight in his eye, the bleeding was already to bad and it was already to late.

Detective Danny Williams was gone.

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**The End**

**Seriously... I took my Danny whump to a whole new level. I would REALLY love to hear reviews on this one!**

**Oz**


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